Topic: DNS settings

[mheymann]

Has anyone ever tried the service
http://www.opendns.com/smb/solutions
I was looking at their website and they can perform several functions
that would be beneficial for me
I would seem that if I modify the "Corporate DNS Settings" in the Server-manager to point to
their DNS servers it would work but I don't know if this can work or is even desired.

[cactus]

Has anyone ever tried the service
http://www.opendns.com/smb/solutions
I was looking at their website and they can perform several functions
that would be beneficial for me
I would seem that if I modify the "Corporate DNS Settings" in the Server-manager to point to
their DNS servers it would work but I don't know if this can work or is even desired.

You most of the times do not need an external DNS server as SME Server is capable of DNS resolution it self.

[CharlieBrady]

SME server already gives you a reliable caching DNS resolver which is independent of the possibly unreliable one provided by your ISP. So that gives you what opendns is spruiking in their headline:

 Unbundle your DNS from your ISP's Internet connection. Get faster, more reliable Internet. Fewer support
 requests. More productive employees.

[thomasch]

SME server already gives you a reliable caching DNS resolver which is independent of the possibly unreliable one provided by your ISP.

Charlie,

Independently? Do you mean I can use SMEserver as a DNS server for my network without configuring it to point to any dns server?

Now I point all DNS request in my network to adsl router which resolve dns request from my isp DNS server. The problem is my ISP DNS server is slow and unreliable.

What is your recommendation? My SMEserver is in server only mode.

thomas

[CharlieBrady]

Independently? Do you mean I can use SMEserver as a DNS server for my network without configuring it to point to any dns server?

Yes. Is it not mentioned in the Manual?

[CharlieBrady]

Now I point all DNS request in my network to adsl router which resolve dns request from my isp DNS server. The problem is my ISP DNS server is slow and unreliable.

What is your recommendation?

That you use your SME server for DNS resolution.

[mheymann]

Thank you for your help
I think that I am already using the SME Server as the DNS server
since our ISP only has given us the leased line and several public
IP addresses, so I do not think they have supplied us with any
DNS or other types of services

I have not had any problems with our server to be concerned about.
The main reason I was looking into OpenDNS was some of the extra services
OpenDNS provides, such as, "Web Content Filtering", "Phishing Protection", and
"Faster Internet" (which it may not actually be).

The real main issues I am wanting to address is being able to block users
from going to certain sites (mainly porn and game sites)
as well as block p2p sites.  We have had some issues with the DHCP server
where some users got an address that is not in the DHCP range and they
are not able to connect to the Internet until the address is released and renewed.
I believe it is because someone is using EMule on the network.
I guess getting DansGuardian is probably going to be the best way to make this
happen, but a simpler solution like OpenDNS would have been nice.  The more I need
to modify the default installation with 3rd party contribs the greater the chance
for problems to be introduced.

[cactus]

The real main issues I am wanting to address is being able to block users
from going to certain sites (mainly porn and game sites)
as well as block p2p sites.

You could use dansguardian for that I believe. have a look for it in the wiki.

We have had some issues with the DHCP server
where some users got an address that is not in the DHCP range and they
are not able to connect to the Internet until the address is released and renewed.
I believe it is because someone is using EMule on the network.

I doubt that is the case, SME Server should still hadn out IP addresses in it's assigned range. You should launch a bug for this in the bugtracker.

We have had I guess getting DansGuardian is probably going to be the best way to make this
happen, but a simpler solution like OpenDNS would have been nice.  The more I need to modify the default installation with 3rd party contribs the greater the chance for problems to be introduced.

That is not totally true as you are in control yourself, where you are depending on OpenDNS and are just hoping for the best that their service is stable and does what you want it to do, hoping you get all tehe options and configuration directives you desire.

There are a lot of users who have setup Dansguardian on their SME Server and are happy with it.

[mdo]

Has anyone ever tried the service
http://www.opendns.com/smb/solutions
.....
I would seem that if I modify the "Corporate DNS Settings" in the Server-manager to point to
their DNS servers it would work but I don't know if this can work or is even desired.

Yes, you can utilise their DNS servers with that setup. It's easy to setup and to disable if you do not want to use it any longer. We use that setup for some Primary schools and found it easier to administrate than DansGuardian.
The only feature we use is the filtering, everything else ('faster Internet') is more sales talk ...